LONGWOOD, FL. State inspectors ordered Longwood Country Kitchen on SR W 434 shut down on May 26 after finding roach activity inside the restaurant, the third emergency closure at that address since inspectors began building a record there.
The Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation directed the restaurant to vacate by May 27. It reopened that same morning at 8:15 a.m.
What Inspectors Found
Longwood Country Kitchen: Recent Inspection History
The closure on May 26 produced five high-severity violations and two intermediate violations. The follow-up inspection the next morning, which cleared the restaurant to reopen, still found two high-severity violations and one intermediate violation.
Those remaining high-severity citations were not minor. Inspectors documented that food contact surfaces had not been properly cleaned or sanitized, and that food was not being cooked to the required minimum internal temperature.
The intermediate violation that survived into the follow-up inspection involved single-use items being reused, a practice inspectors flagged as a contamination risk.
What These Violations Mean
Roach activity is one of the few conditions Florida law treats as an immediate threat to public health, which is why it carries authority to close a restaurant on the spot. Roaches carry and deposit pathogens on food, on prep surfaces, and on the equipment that touches both. A customer who ate at Longwood Country Kitchen on May 26 had no way to know that inspectors had found evidence of an active infestation inside the kitchen.
The two high-severity violations that persisted into the May 27 follow-up inspection compounded that picture. Improperly cleaned food contact surfaces, cutting boards, prep tables, and utensils that have not been sanitized between uses, are a direct route for bacterial transfer from one food item to another. When a surface that touched raw meat is not properly cleaned before it contacts ready-to-eat food, whatever was on the raw meat travels with it.
The cooking temperature violation carries a separate and specific risk. Salmonella in poultry survives below 165 degrees Fahrenheit. When food is not brought to the required minimum internal temperature, pathogens that heat would have destroyed remain active. A customer eating undercooked food from that kitchen would have no visible indication anything was wrong.
Reusing single-use items, the intermediate violation that remained after the closure was lifted, is a lower-severity citation but reflects the same underlying breakdown. Items designed to be discarded after one use, gloves, foil, small cups, accumulate contamination each time they are reused and carry it forward.
The Pattern
This was not the first time roaches closed Longwood Country Kitchen. On March 25, 2026, inspectors shut the restaurant down for the same reason. It reopened the following day, March 26, after a follow-up inspection. That closure came with three high-severity violations and two intermediate violations. The follow-up that cleared it still showed two high-severity violations.
Two months later, the restaurant was closed again for the same trigger.
State records show 30 inspections on file for this location and 297 total violations documented across that history. The facility has been classified as a permanent food service establishment, not a temporary or seasonal operation.
The eight most recent inspections tell a consistent story. In November 2024, inspectors cited six high-severity violations and two intermediate ones. In April 2025, they cited six high-severity violations and four intermediate ones. The October 2025 inspection showed four high-severity violations on the first visit, two on the follow-up. The March 2026 pair produced the second emergency closure. The May 2026 pair produced the third.
The Longer Record
Thirty inspections and 297 violations place Longwood Country Kitchen in a category that goes beyond an isolated bad week. That volume represents a sustained inspection relationship between this restaurant and state regulators, one that has now produced three emergency closures.
The two prior closures, both for roach activity, both in 2026, both resolved within a day, raise a question the records do not answer: what changed between the March reopening and the May closure that allowed the same condition to return. The inspection record shows no gap in scrutiny. Inspectors were back at the restaurant in March, in October, in April, and again in May.
The violations that remained after the May 27 reopening, food contact surfaces not properly cleaned and food not cooked to required temperatures, were high-severity citations. They were present on the morning the restaurant was cleared to serve customers again.
Whether those two violations were corrected after the follow-up inspection is not reflected in the data available. The restaurant was open as of 8:15 a.m. on May 27.